In the joint press statement issued by High Representative/Vice-President
Federica Mogherini and Commissioner Johannes Hahn yesterday (13 March)
regarding the recent tensions between Turkey and certain EU Member States,
we see that there are incorrect assessments and that different agenda items
are merged wrongly in order to misconstrue perceptions.

The EU should realize that the statement fuels extremism, such as
xenophobia and anti-Turkish sentiments because the call to refrain from
excessive statements and actions that risk further exacerbating the
situation is made only to Turkey, instead of the countries that caused this
situation by violating diplomatic conventions and international law.

The EU has once again acted in a far from objective manner and without
thoroughly assessing the developments, as in the statements issued after
the heinous coup attempt of 15 July and the attacks carried out by PKK
which is on the EU terrorist organization list.

Instead of giving a strong message to the member states that have violated
the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) and the Vienna
Convention on Consular Relations (1963) as well as fundamental human
rights, the obligations arising from the European Convention on Human
Rights and their international responsibilities, the EU's protectionist
attitude that hides behind member state solidarity and stands with the
Netherlands, which has clearly violated human rights and European values,
is extremely grave.

Our EU counterparts only selectively apply democratic values, fundamental
rights and freedoms and while recommending dialogue channels for resolving
problems, prefer to ignore our policy pursued within the limits of
diplomacy and law, unlike the Netherlands.

For all these reasons, the EU's short-sighted statement has no value for
us.